Creating new works for an old favourite

Recorder player Alicia Crossley writes about working with
Australian composers, creating new works for her instruments. A
premiere of a new work by Paul Cutlan will take place in
Blacktown, Sydney, as part of the Aurora Festival on
1 May, and more new music for bass recorder is included on
her new CD Addicted to Bass.

The repertoire recorder players are exposed to is a world of
extremes. On the one hand we have an enormous collection of early
compositions, from Renaissance dances to the virtuosic concerti
of Vivaldi and Telemann. On the other hand we have an
ever-growing collection of contemporary repertoire, many
avant-garde in style, with advanced playing techniques a standard
feature. It is these contemporary works that excite me the most,
compositions that push the recorder to its physical and musical
extremes.

Australian composers have made a great contribution to the
recorder players' modern catalogue, consistently writing
innovative works for the instrument since the 1980s. What I
admire most about Australian composers who have ventured into the
recorder world is their unashamed variety of compositional
styles: the spritely dance style of Ross
Edwards'sUlpirra, the neo-baroque compositions of
Stephen
Yates (Fandangle Indeed), or the in-your-face energy of
Michael Smetanin'sSpin (O). Australian composers have
embraced the virtuosic potential of the recorder and have thrust
the instrument into the twenty-first century.

As a performer I relish the opportunity to collaborate with
composers to create new and innovative compositions for the
recorder. I believe the collaborative process teaches
both the composer and the performer a great deal about their
instrument, and find it particularly beneficial working with
composers who have never written for the recorder before; with no
pre-conceived ideas about how the instrument should sound or the
correct extended techniques to use, composers are not afraid to
test the limits of the recorder and are keen to explore every
timbre, tone and technique possible to best reflect their
compositional ideas. This has certainly been the case with my
previous collaborations, particularly when it comes to writing
for the bass recorder, an instrument that is rarely used in a
solo capacity yet has enormous musical potential.

My latest collaborative endeavour is with Australian composer and
jazz musician Paul
Cutlan. Composing his new work Affirmations for the upcoming 2014
Aurora Festival, Cutlan was faced with the somewhat unusual
instrumental combination of bass recorder, cello and didjeridu.
On the surface this ensemble provides a range of potential
problems, particularly with the large dynamic differences of the
instruments, but there is an enormous soundscape available with
this unique ensemble, and Cutlan has taken full advantage. A wide
range of sound effects, extended techniques and electronics have
been incorporated into Affirmations - these were all
workshopped carefully with the performers. Cutlan also makes a
feature of the instrument's drastically different timbres,
resulting in a composition with a rather worldly feel - the
traditional didjeridu sound effects so ingrained in Aboriginal
culture, the Indian-inspired quarter-tone melodies of the bass
recorder, and the cello's grounding rhythmic loops, are all
centred around an underlying jazz 'groove'.

Alicia Crossley is one of Australia’s leading recorder players. She performs a wide variety of repertoire from renaissance dance tunes to contemporary electro-acoustic works with a particular interest in bass recorder repertoire.

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